Houston Texans Running of the Bulls 5K

While waiting in the "bullpen" for this morning's race to begin, a surprising thought entered my head:

I am on the attack today.

Yesterday, I went out to prove that I wasn't too sick to finish 3.1 miles, and did it. And today, I felt better than I did yesterday. So, I could say that I felt ready to take this one by the horns.




I looked over the crowd that had come in for today's race, and it was much bigger than the one that showed up for the Battle Red Run the Texans hosted in 2006. Not Rodeo Run large, but there were easily as many people here as at the last Astros Race For The Pennant 5K I was at, so the Texans' event marketing people must have stepped up their game recently.

We were told to expect the sound of a cannon blast to signal the start of the Running of the Bulls 5K, but I guess there was a firing malfunction and we were sent forward without much fanfare at all. As planned, I attacked the first mile way more aggressively than I did yesterday. I did my best Arian Foster impression, weaving and cutting around many, many people for that entire first mile. I found myself amused at passing numerous walkers for that entire first mile. In the end there was only a one minute discrepancy between my chip time and gun time, so I can only presume that they must have started the course early.

The Bullpen Pep Band that plays at Texans home games was out to play for us next to the Mile 1 water station, and I gave them an enthusiastic wave even though I couldn't quite make out the number they were playing at that moment in time. Mile 2 of this course features two crossings over Kirby Drive using the pedestrian bridges that lead out of Reliant Stadium. My inner nerd became the motivator during the bridge crossings, as these were the on-the-spot mantras I muttered to myself over the bridges:

Uphill: "Potential, potential, potential, potential. . . ."
Downhill: "Kinetic, kinetic, kinetic, kinetic. . . ."

I was even feeling better than expected in Mile 3, and I'm pretty sure I passed more people than passed by me. I still feel a little discouraged when I can barely keep up with some of these long-legged ladies and gentlemen that appear to be merely walking enthusiastically, though.



The finish line was through the north tunnel. Although a 20-yard "red zone" and end zone were marked on the pavement, I was really hoping to end the race on some of the actual turf used during games in Reliant Stadium. Surely they grow spare squares of the stuff, right?

Even though I struck out during the door prize drawings, I still came away with my fastest 5K in more than two years, and that's no bull.

The splits:
Mile 1: 9:13
Mile 2: 10:09
Mile 3: 9:59
Last .1: 1:43
5K Elapsed Time: 31:05 per Garmin Forerunner 205

Official race results:
Chip Time: 31:00
Gun Time: 32:01
Placing: 77th in M35-39 AG

Run to Cure HD 5K

Friday afternoon found me being dragged down by what I believe is a head cold. Even with a medication-assisted night's sleep, I wasn't exactly feeling 100% when I showed up at Oyster Creek Park to take on this morning's Run To Cure HD. I registered the requisite brain malfunction when I arrived and realized I had left my timing chip at home. No problem, really, since I'm rarely in danger of being within sniffing distance of a podium finish.

I had my trusty Forerunner 205 GPS to record my race, and it was secured with the replacement Velcro strap I ordered from Garmin after one of the eyelets on the original "watchstrap" broke, It's not stylish, but the Velcro worked really well to stop the device from bouncing around, just as it did with the original Forerunner 101.

This wound up as a tightly spaced race, as we were doing two out-and-backs on a narrow asphalt trail that was not closed to the public during the race. It's a good thing that the turnout for this was only a few hundred people or else we'd have problem with runners weaving into others' path. I kept up a pretty good pace during mile 2, "drafting" behind a woman mimicking a rollerblading motion with her stride.

In the final mile, the beginning of the final leg-in was marked with a line of white tape and some college-age volunteers were there marshaling runners to touch the line before turning around. I decided to play this up even further by asking if I could not just touch the tape line, but if I could caress it, stopping and bending over to give it a nice patting. That got a nice whoop-and-holler response.

We may be slow in the back of the pack, but we have more time to have fun on the race course!

And now, it's off to bed for me: I'll be taking on another 5K in the morning.

The splits . . .
Mile 1: 10:37

Mile 2: 10:39
Mile 3 11:17
Last .1: 1:24

Elapsed 5K time: 33:58 (per Garmin Forerunner 205)

Houston Running Calendar re-launch

My other blog project has been a simple, yet comprehensive, list of upcoming races and fun runs in the Houston area. I'm moving it to a custom domain name of its very own. So http://houstonrunningcalendar.blogspot.com is changing to http://www.houstonrunningcalendar.com.

Thanks to everyone who's been giving me positive feedback. Update your browser bookmarks!

Octoberfast dreaming

Tonight I ponder both where the training time has went and how the remainder of training time will be coming prior to race day in January. The Houston Marathon Kick-Off Party came and went a couple of weeks ago and we're at the point of the year where the long runs will be served mostly in increasing helping sizes.

I feel like I'm ahead of the curve as I stretched out for 16 miles this past weekend. Yes, I was very exhausted by the end, but I was pleased to see that the body recovery was a snap, compared to previous long runs where I'd be working out soreness for more than a couple of days. It was a humid morning, but partly cloudy with temps that stayed under 80F through mid-morning. I was breaking in a new hydration belt -- the Nathan Speed 2 -- and it felt really good to have that pair of 10-ounce bottles around my center-of-gravity instead of 20 ounces sloshing around together as usual in my handheld Amphipod.

Fueling this season's PR distance on Saturday were Black Cherry Clif Shot Blocks, Blueberry-Pomegranate GU Chomps, and a MP3 playlist with nothing but albums from the band Cake. Cake gave a great show for their Houston fans recently as headliners of BestFest in Midtown. One thing I hadn't noticed until that night is that their songs don't vary too widely in tempo. So a nothing-but-Cake soundtrack was actually useful in keeping up a decent running rhythm.

Endurance is building, but I'm still concerned about speed. If Marathon Sunday was tomorrow, I wouldn't be ready for the 13:45/mile pace needed to finish in the 6-hour limit. I'm hoping speed will come around with cooler weather and more training time. Meanwhile, this week I'm dialing back the distance this weekend for at least one short race, so here's a toast to finding some Octoberfast in my glass!